The cunning of age

Last week was a very productive writing week--I went from two paragraph idea to two chapters on the new project, all while keeping up with the crazed work schedule. I'm off the early morning routine for a while, but replacing that with all day business strategy meetings next week so I'm not sure that's an improvement.

This morning, as I outlined chapter three, and once again thought about the research I needed to do, I realized that I'm working from a distinct advantage over a younger version of myself. I've traveled extensively in the U.S., and in these travels the packrat writer brain was always working, picking up the odd fact here, the strange bit of trivia there. Not enough to make me an expert by any means, but when it came to where to set this chapter, I immediately thought "Let's put it in X because that would be just the kind of place the hero would go. And then we can do Y, and I think a scene set in Z would be really cool, and I know I still have that book of local history I picked up somewhere in the house, so when it's time to fill in the details I can bridge off that."

And with that, I'm off and ready to write.